15-16/11/2012 International Conference on Cultural Diversity and the Geopolitics of Minorities, Pécs (Hungary)

Plenary Session

Author: Norbert PAP PhD

Chairman,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today I am
going to talk to you about the rapid islamization of Europe and its impact of
East Central Europe, the political and cultural consequences.

If we look at
this map of Europe you can see that in the north, west, south and east of ECEthe rate of the Muslim population is
higher than the regional avarege, and in some places e.g. in the Balkans,
homogeneous Muslim zones can be found. As you can see, the examined region is
an intermediate zone, a hole in the map of Europe, being a continent where
islamization is in process. What are the explanations for this? How have the
Muslims settled down?

Based on the
2011 survey of the Pew Institute 43 million Muslims live in Europe, which is
5.8% of the total European population. According to the 2030 prognosis this
number may increase to 57 million, that is change to 7.8% of the full
population. On the next tableyou
can see the country specific figures.

Within this, a
total of 130 thousand Muslims can be found in the five East Central
European countries that we studied, where their ratio is less than one per
thousand. According to the 2030 prognosis there is either a stagnation or a
decline in the number of people, the ratio does not change substantially.

It should be
noted that there are other surveys and data as well, but the figures do not
reasonably differ.

How do these
communities get to the region? Partly they have been living in the region for a
longer period of time, they are of Turkish or Tatar origin. The other group of
a similar size got to this area due to the migration in the past few decades.
They are mostly Arabs but smaller groups of settlers have arrived also from
other parts of the Islamic world (Turks, Albanians, Bosnians, Chechens and
Afghan refugees). A small but growing group is composed of the local Muslims
who changed religion, they converted to the Islam.

The usual
explanation to diversity is the past that can be characterized by a communist
and a locked-in period. The region was left out of the modern migration that
emerged in the western part of the continent in the 20th century.

It is a
potential explanation that the region also missed modern colonization. In these
cases there were no cultural and personal relations between the nations which
could give direction of the migration. There are other factors to consider such
as the open or closed nature of the host country, the labour market
characteristics or the quality of higher education and its attractivity. The
East Central European countries joined the modern migration processes
relatively late and not as hosting but more like as sending countries. The main
reasons why they came ECE: to study, to do business or as the case may have been,
as asylum seekers. The prognoses do not show the likelihood of higher population
growth and it can not be expected that a lot of new gaps would open up that
could attract employees from Muslim countries.

How have the
followers of Islam settled down, in what way have they arranged their way of
life? The legal backgrounds of the religious groups varies in the ECE countries
but the acceptance is tied to the number of people involved.

In Poland and
in Rumania Islam has been accepted and the Church of Islam has been registered
for a longer period of time. In the other states, however, its organizations
were established during the past 25 years. The only state where there is no
recognition of their religious nature is Slovakia. However, the civil sector
evolved (developed) everywhere and it provides an appropriate background for
the communal demands. Their activities are financed to a lesser degree by the
state, mainly in Poland and in Rumania, but external funding also appears here
as well, mostly from Turkey. The financing of the Muslim communities is not
transparent enough, the Zakat (Islamic charity) plays an important role in this
issue. Among others private individuals and organizations from the rich Arab
oil states give money for the operation, construction of mosques. This is the
relation that fills the authorities with suspicion. It is assumed that Islamic
fundamentalist or maybe terrorism-related organizations provide the money.

All the divisions that characterize the
community appear in the civil sphere. The major dividing lines extend between
the “old” Muslims and newly arrived ones, Sunnis and Shiites, “local” Muslims
(converts) and immigrants.

The situation in Hungary well illlustrates the whole of ECE. Three major
organizations have been developed recently. Based on the 1990 legal regulations
it was relatively easy to found religious organizations and that was how the
Sunni Muslim organizations were established. The Hungarian Islamic Community is
the oldest organization which was founded by Balázs Mihályffy in 1988. The
church leader (president) is Zoltán Bolek from Hungary and the members are
typically Hungarians, too. They regularly organize national and international
charitable events, they sustain Muslim missions in the refugee camps and carry out
pastoral care in prisons.

The Muslim Church of Hungary, which was established in 2000, parted from
the former organization. Its two subcentres can be found in Szeged and in Pécs.
It is a member of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe. Its leader
is Zoltán Sulok, there are a large number of foreign-born believers among its
members.

The third and smallest organization, which was established the latest, is
the Islamic Church with its headquarter located in Budapest in the Dar as-Salam
Mosque. The Islamic Church was established in 2003 on the basis of the
initiative of some of the believers who parted from the Muslim Church of
Hungary. The religious leader is Tayseer Saleh of Palestinian origin, who is
believed to be following salafi tenets.

In the situation that evolved after the New Church Law had been adopted,
the Muslim organizations were bound to join forces and the two largest ones of
them (the Hungarian Islamic Community and the Muslim Church of Hungary) created
the Islamic Council of Hungary in 2012. Currently this organization takes care
of the representation of the Muslims in Hungary as stated in the law.

In Hungary there are several active civil Muslim organizations. The
Dialogue Platform Association was established in 2005 with Turkish and Hungarian
members and it is bound to the Gülen movement. The Aluakf foundation operates
in Miskolc and it maintains a prayer house also in Miskolc. The Hanif Cultural
Foundation has outstanding merits concerning their publishing activities.
Organizations and operations of a similar type appear in the other countries.

In what way do
Muslim private individuals and organizations appear in the dimension of
politics?

Political
appearances have two main features. One of them is that they appear in public
speeches, in the media tied to foreign policy issues, to the hot spots of world
politics (Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, caricature scandal, Mohamed film etc.).
This is more or less well-known and dealt with, I would not speak about this
here and now.

The other sphere
of phenomena is related to building mosques.

Currently
mosques and Islamic cultural institutions represent the objectified targets of
debates concerning Islam. The construction of new mosques and especially
minarets divides the non-Muslim societies throughout the world. In Islam, the mosque(masǧid
/ مسجد)
is the “place for bowing” in other words. The so-called djami (جامع),
the “place for gathering” is nothing else but the the so-called great mosque,
where the Friday prayers are held.

In Poland there are only three mosques in the
classical sense. Two of them can be found in the north-eastern corner of the
country, in Podlasie Voivodeship, built by the Polish community of Tatars. One
of them was built in the 18th century, the other one in a rural area
in the 19th century and the third one in Gdansk in 1990. In addition
to these Islamic cultural centres and prayer houses (about 10) were also set
up.

Facilities
associated with Islam generally do not evoke intense emotions or opposition in
the Polish society, only very little evidence can be brought up regarding this.
One of the very rare exceptions was the demonstration against (and also in
favour of!) the establishment of the Muslim Cultural centre in Warsaw in early
2010. The demonstration was organized by the Polish organization named the
“Europe of the Future”. The authorities did not intervene, the protest did not
reach its goal. Despite this phenomenon, it can be said that regarding the
mosque issue, the Polish society and the polish state belong to the most
tolerant ones in East Central Europe.

In the Czech Republic numerous initiatives were
born and burnt to ashes typically due to the opposition from local residents.
The first mosque was built in Brno in 1998 after fierce battles with the local
authorities. A year later a second such facility was completed near Prague.
Besides these there are prayer rooms in the country, in the university centres
and spas (frequently visited by rich Arabs from the Near East).

In Slovakia the right to build places of worship is
the right of the religious denimonations. There was an experiment for the
establishment of an Islamic cultural facility with a similar function in
Bratislava but based on “cityscape protection” considerations the initiative
was rejected. There are three-four prayer rooms in Bratislava and countryside
centres.

In Rumania a large number of mosques were built back
in the Ottoman era. A century ago their number exceeded 250. Today 77 works,
mostly in Dobrogea but there is also a newly built one in Bucharest. Building a
mosque or a church is the legal right of every registered religion, including
also the 700-year-old Islam. That is why the context of building mosques in
Rumania is very different from that of in other states of East Central Europe.
Arguments concerning this topic are not known.

The case of Hungary is rather unique from several
points of view. A few historic mosques remained from the Ottoman era. One of
them can be found in Esztergom. It was restored recently and is used as a
museum. From among the historic mosques in Baranya county, the Ali Pasha Mosque
in Szigetvár and the Gazi Kasim Pasha Mosque in Pécs are consecrated Catholic
churches. However, as a result of the monument reconstruction, the original
architecture looks excellent. The Siklós Malkocs Bey Mosque and the Pécs
Jakovali Hassan Mosque are museums. However, they are regularly used for
religious purposes as well by the local Muslim believers. There has not been a
classical domed mosque with a minaret built recently in Hungary, and there is
only one of that kind in the country’s historical area in Subotica, in the area
of the present-day Serbia. Besides
these there are 8 so called mosques (prayer houses and prayer rooms) in the
country, they are Islamic centres.

However, an
anti-Islamic protest took place in the 11th district of Budapest
when the Islam Church began to build a new mosque and cultural centre,
otherwise on the basis of valid permits. When the local residents started their
protest they referred to the expected growth of traffic, the environmental
load, noise and also an increased terrorist threat. The construction was also
added to the political debates on Home Affairs in the 2010 election year. In
the end the construction was made to be impossible and the local authorities
withdrew the building permit.

The political
debates primarily take place within the local society, there are no nationwide
significance.